Movements Success Stories

SUCCESS STORY 122: The Huffington Post published The Malaysian Transgender Community Are in Hot Water With the Religious Authorities, an article by Tahir Rawther, a human rights activist based in Malaysia. The LGBT community faces frequent arrest conducted by The Federal Territories Islamic Department, often done without a police warrant. A recent raid, accompanied by the media, interrupted a closed-door dinner at which transgender women (Maknyah in Malay) were having a beauty pageant. The event's organizers were arrested and charged with encouraging vice and defying religious authorities on the grounds that the event violated a fatwa against beauty pageants.